Spring

The course introduces students to the first ‘empires’ in the ancient Middle East. We will study the earliest attempts under both Sumerian and Akkadian leadership at unifying the old Sumerian city states in what is today southern Iraq in the mid-third millennium BCE. Our focus will then be on the two successful empires that arose from these attempts, namely the one founded by Sargon of Akkade in ca. 2300 BCE and the one ruled by the Third Dynasty of Ur from 2092–2003 BCE. While exploring a rich variety of sources, both textual and from archaeological contexts, we will pay particular attention to understanding expansionist efforts, strategies of empire building, the establishment of a centralized state bureaucracy, ideologies of kingship, ethnicity and identity, as well as rebellions against the new political system and theories about why these early empires began to crumble after only a few generations. Since these new forms of dominion were tested and developed for the first time in this formative period and kings of these dynasties acquired a special status in Mesopotamian cultural memory, this course provides a solid base for understanding the later development of ancient Middle Eastern history but can also be studied for the sake of understanding early empire formation.

This course will examine the concept and definition of empire and the practices of imperial control through a case study of Mesopotamia’s best-known empire, the Neo-Assyrian (first half of the 1st millennium BCE). At its peak, the Assyrians ruled a vast area covering most of modern Iraq and Syria, plus parts of Iran, Turkey and the Levant, with aspirations to control Egypt. The gradual expansion of this empire from late 2nd millennium BCE beginnings and its extremely rapid collapse in ca. 612 BCE provide an excellent example of the tensions within trajectories of empire. The course themes include warfare and political strategies, identity and ethnicity, imperial bureaucracy, and the practical and ideological purposes of infrastructure building. Evidence examined will include texts (in translation) and the archaeological record at various scales, from settlements through artworks. We will also examine paradoxes, such as the contrast between textual claims of hegemony and limited archaeological evidence for this, and the power of visual propaganda versus its select audience.

The goal of this class is to get an overview of Hittite literature, as “defined” by the Hittites themselves, in the wider historical-cultural context of the Ancient Near East. Some of the most important questions we can ask ourselves in reading ancient texts are: why were they written down, why were they kept, for whom were they intended, and what do the answers to these questions (apart from the primary content of the texts themselves) tell us about — in our case — Hittite society?

Prior knowledge of the Middle East not required. This course aims to facilitate a general understanding of some key factors that have shaped life in this region, with primary emphasis on modern conditions and their background, and to provide exposure to some of the region's rich cultural diversity. This course can serve as a basis for the further study of the history, politics, and civilizations of the Middle East.

This course surveys the archaeology and history of the Levant from the end of the Bronze Age around 1100 BCE to the Roman conquest of the region in 64-63 BCE.

This course will critically analyse past human sensory experiences, based in case studies of ancient Mesopotamia from the 5th through 1st millennia BCE. These case studies will vary in scale from portable material culture through vast natural landscapes. The case studies will include the effects of materials, objects and both built and natural spaces on vision, smell, touch, hearing and taste. Building on this traditional five-sense framework, we will also aim to reconstruct and analyse synaesthetic experiences (multi-sensory or combined senses) and will further explore the more enigmatic senses of fear or awe, of comfort, and of place and belonging. We will engage both empirical analyses and socio-cultural perspectives via synthesis of practical data and critical reading of ancient texts (in translation). The aims of the course are to expand students’ interpretive toolkit and to encourage thinking about archaeological data from the ground up (rather than top down), via lived experiences and sensual and emotional perceptions.

This course provides undergraduate and graduate students with an introduction to the use of animal bones in archaeological research. Students will gain hands-on experience analyzing faunal remains from an archaeological site in the Near East. The class will address theoretical and methodological issues involved in the use of animal bones as a source of information about prehistoric societies. The course consists of lectures, laboratory sessions, and original research projects using collections of animal bone from archaeological excavations in southeast Turkey. Topics covered include: 1) identifying, ageing and sexing animal bones; 2) zooarchaeological sampling, measurement, quantification, and problems of taphonomy; 3) analysis of animal bone data; 4) reconstructing prehistoric hunting and pastoral economies, especially: animal domestication, hunting strategies, herding systems, seasonality, and pastoral production in complex societies.

Reading and Research

This course assumes that students have full mastery of the grammatical and lexical content of the advanced level. The main objective is literary fluency. By the end of the course, students should have an excellent command of Hebrew. The course concentrates on the written language, especially scientific writing, as well as elements of Biblical Hebrew, literature from earlier periods and sophisticated journalistic writing. Students read the various Israeli daily newspapers as well as Israeli literature, scientific articles and legal documents (with the help of a dictionary) of varying lengths. They have a good command of synonyms and idiomatic Hebrew, and also understand the subtle differences between words. Their already substantial vocabularies now include many words from a wide variety of genres. Students considerably improve their ability to write long essays in Hebrew on a wide range of topics, incorporating idiomatic language.

This course assumes that students have full mastery of the grammatical and lexical content of the intermediate level (second year Hebrew or the placement exam are prerequisites). The main objective is literary fluency. The texts used in this course include both academic prose, as well as literature. Students are exposed to semantics and morphology in addition to advanced grammar. Requirements include a weekly class presentation, regular essay writing, two take-home exams, and several quizzes per quarter.